How about this one that I heard from a little old lady that taught drunk driving classes. She was vehemently against drunk drivers but even taken aback by this one.
Apparently one of her "students" went out with business clients in Staten Island and felt he had too much to drink. He decided to call his wife to come pick him up and sat in the back seat of his car with the door open waiting for her. His wife arrived just in time to see her husband carted off to jail. He was not observed operating/driving the car, yet was still convicted of a DUI.
That will teach him. He more than likely would have been able to drive home without getting caught.
I do feel for those who get picked up while sleeping off a drunk in their car in a bar's parking lot. There I think it's safe enough to assume, without some evidence to the contrary, that they drove there sober. IMO they should be left alone unless and until they are observed actually driving drunk. In Oregon, traffic laws generally don't apply on private property, but an exception was made for drunk driving specifically to allow this tactic.
Your story reminds me of something that really happened in the town of Reedsport Oregon maybe 30 years ago. A pair of yoots who had been drinking went on a beer run to the Circle K. On exiting with their fresh stock of brew they observed the local cop stationed on a speed trap nearby. Not wanting to get popped for drunk driving (one or both of them had priors), these guys decided their best option was to PUSH the car home rather than drive. The cop observed them pushing the car and allowed them to continue for some distance, finally deciding to make contact with them. During the encounter the guys truthfully explained why they were pushing the car. The wheel man (pushing on the driver's door and working the steering) was hauled in for DUI.
That case did go through a couple layers of appeal (I don't recall exactly how far), but the charge stuck all the way through.